Calif. Governor Has No Mercy for Inmate - Clarence Ray Allen to die by injection Tuesday

ABC ^ | Jan 13, 2006 | AP

[Former Military Chick]

California's oldest death row inmate a 75-year-old who is legally blind and nearly deaf is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to do something it has never done before: block an execution because of the condemned man's advanced age and infirmity.

Clarence Ray Allen's attorneys contend that executing a feeble old man amounts to cruel and unusual punishment banned by the U.S. Constitution.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday denied Allen clemency. Barring a last-minute reprieve by the courts, the governor's decision means Allen will become the second-oldest person put to death since the U.S. Supreme Court allowed capital punishment to resume in 1976.

He is set to die by injection Tuesday for ordering three slayings while behind bars for another murder.

Allen, who turns 76 on the eve of his execution, has been on death row for more than 23 years. He often uses a wheelchair and had to be resuscitated after suffering a heart attack last year at San Quentin Prison.

"The spectacle of Mr. Allen being wheeled into the death chamber, unable to walk and unable to see those who have come to witness his execution, violates all standards of decency and would amount to nothing more than the purposeless and needless imposition of pain and suffering prohibited by the Eighth Amendment," said Annette Carnegie, one of Allen's attorneys.

Schwarzenegger said Allen's age and health did not matter and noted that he committed his crimes at the age of 50. "His conduct did not result from youth or inexperience, but instead resulted from the hardened and calculating decisions of a mature man."

Allen's death sentence has been delayed by 23 years of appeals. He "should not escape the jury's punishment because our system works deliberately and carefully," Schwarzenegger said.

In his two years in office, Schwarzenegger has denied three petitions for clemency based on claims of innocence, mental incompetence, and good behavior or good deeds in prison. The last time a California governor granted clemency was in 1967, when Gov. Ronald Reagan spared a mentally ill killer.

[dighton]

So much for Allen’s bizarre claim of being “too old and sickly to die.”

[Squantos]

STICK HIM !

[IronJack]

Tick-tock, Clarence. Don't start any long novels.

[LK44-40]

nothing more than the purposeless and needless imposition of pain and suffering prohibited by the Eighth Amendment," said Annette Carnegie, one of Allen's attorneys.

My solution: Execute her, also.

[OnRightOnLeftCoast]

Don't see the Lefties out protesting do you? Gotta be a Gangsta for that to happen.

Only destination: The Big Dumpster in the Sky!

[GaltMeister]

I hope Tookie saved him a seat in hell.

[Westlander]

Sharpen the needle. It's tOOkie time!

[verity]

Is it possible to have his attorneys on adjoining gurneys?

[IronJack]

It's tOOkie time!

I like to think of it as the Kevorkian Cocktail Hour.

[packrat35]

And the recidivism rate for executed felons is zero

Needs to be repeated.

[Darksheare]

He plots to have people killed while he's in prison, he's awaiting execution, but due to his age and 'infirmity' we're supposed to be lenient on him?
What a freaking coward he is!
If he's so 'infirm', execution is the least of his worries.
*sheesh!*

[Chode]

Calif. Governor shows same measure of mercy to CONVICTED MURDER as he showed his INNOCENT VICTIMS!!!

there... that's better.

[cookcounty]

There's still time to quick write a children's book. It can't take that long.
------Then they can blame Arnold for having a vendetta against childrens' authors.

[snugs]

I suspect they mention the fact he has been on death row for so many years to gain sympathy because it does seem crazy to keep someone waiting that many years to die.

Rather than excusing the death penalty now I agree there should never have been that many appeals allowed. Why not allow local appeal and then SC appeal if both of them fail then the prisoner should be executed. Not appeal after appeal, this is neither fair to family of those he murdered or ordered murdered and also to his own family who by no fault of their own have this animal as part of their family.

[taxesareforever]

who is legally blind and nearly deaf

See no evil, hear no evil, feel no pain

[WasDougsLamb]

violates all standards of decency and would amount to nothing more than the purposeless and needless imposition of pain and suffering



---And are these idiots saying the victims felt/suffered none of these things and just Allen does?

[Hoodat]

>Clarence Ray Allen's attorneys contend that executing a feeble old man amounts to cruel and unusual punishment banned by the U.S. Constitution<

Not our choice. We would have preferred that you had been executed on December 3, 1982. It's your fault for dragging it out.

[Vigilanteman]

Nice narrative. According to my calculations, did his first murder at age 43, was sent to prison, had his sentance commuted to life and arranged the next three murders at age 51.

It is cruel and unusual punishment to subject the relatives of the victims to this kind of suspense. Had he properly been executed the first time, three useful people would still be alive.

[moog]

Had he properly been executed the first time, three useful people would still be alive.


OR if they had doe it earlier than 23 years too.

[LexBaird]

Then they can blame Arnold for having a vendetta against childrens' authors.

Now that's a low blow. After all, Arnold's Uncle-in-Law Teddy is a children's book author who committed murder, but you don't hear Arnold condemning him, do you?